Posts Tagged ‘channel-4’

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The compiler of this column has always been, and will always be, an equal opportunities emplaner. Just because a flight game is Dimensionally Challenged – just because its spread of sky lacks a North and South, or an East and West – doesn’t mean I won’t clutch it to my kitten-clawed bosom or spit scalding Criti-Bile™ in its eye. Unhappily, 2D flight games with a modicum of respect for realism are rarer than rocking horseflies these days. Some might even go so far as saying the sub-genre is slightly dead. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today I paid my bills, considered the pros and cons of renting a nicer apartment, opened a bank account that seemed vaguely exploitative, feared that I was in danger of spending beyond my means and made a squirrel wear hob-nailed boots so that it could kick its athletic opponents in the back of the knee. Then I wondered if squirrels have knees. I’ve actually done all of those things, except the bits about squirrels. UNTIL NOW. International Racing Squirrels, a free browser game developed by Playniac for Britain’s own Channel 4, aims to teach youngsters about financial responsibility and running small businesses. Does it work?

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I’m not sure whether Channel 4’s The SuperMes is an extremely extensive advert for The Sims 3, or an arch criticism of the nature of reality television. Either way, it’s a man commentating over edited footage of the game, in an attempt to create a Big Brother-style narrative. You can see the first episode, spotted by Gamasutra, below.

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There’s some game called Fallen City. It looks SHIT/AMAZING. It’s by some idiot/genius called Jim Rossignol and so on and so on. Indeed, what is a Rock, Paper, Shotgun to do when one of its own accidentally plops out a game? Should we not cover it out of modesty and propriety? Should we aim to be “objective”, as if that’s a thing? Should we overly promote it at a cost to informing our readers about other games we haven’t made? Yes. We should do all three. But today instead I’m going to show off some of the screenshots from Big Robot’s lovely urban-renewal-em-up, a Channel 4 game that’s inspired by the Broken Windows theory.

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Preloaded’s latest game for Channel 4, The End, is out today. It’s a game about death, big questions, and in turn, life. It’s also a platform game. And a board game. That’s a strange combination. Does it work? Well, I’ve been having a play.

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Ooh, this is clever. It’s the new free web game from Littleloud, they of The Curfew and Bow Street Runner. Like those, Sweatshop‘s noble aim is to expertly mate education and social conscience with smart and satisfying game mechanics. In this case, it’s a canny twist upon tower defence games that also highlights the abject horror and terrible exploitation of sweatshop factories – and the most dangerous enemy in the game is your own impulse to succeed.Read the rest of this entry »

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I’ve often idly remarked that it’d be lovely (by way of fascinating) if someone made a documentary, or a even documentary series, about some of the more unusual aspects of British game development. Headlight Pictures have gone and done precisely that. Crunchtime, a three-part series which which will first air on Sunday 27th, at 7:25am, on Channel 4, examines the Dare To Be Digital competition run by the University of Abertay, Dundee. It continues across two more weekends, detailing the various dramas which face the student teams in their quest to develop splendid videogames. It ends, of course, in actual crunchtime.

Obviously this’ll turn up in 4oD later on, too, but people tuning in will definitely help future game documentary exploits! Logo image thanks to Craig Hastings / Headlight Pictures.

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As you’ll see if scroll down a bit and your eyes still work, Channel 4 Education revealed ten new webgames from British studios this morning. We sent roving reporter Keza MacDonald to speak to the Commissioning Editors for Education, Alice Taylor and Jo Twist, over three cups of coffee and a ridiculous over-abundance of pastry treats. Wish to read comforting things about how lovely the British indie scene is, why PC webgames are the most effective way of peddling subtle education messages, and how susceptible teenagers are to evil videogames? It’s all just down there.

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Today Channel 4 unveiled a new selection of gently educational web gamelets for 2011, funded by its educational division. Like this year’s previous commissions, which included Littleloud’s The Curfew, Zombie Cow’s Privates, and SuperMe – a whole set of games from Preloaded intended to make teenagers “better at life” by mucking about on the internet – they’re all being made by UK indies. What are the titles? Who’s involved? Should we be paying attention?

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Last Friday we attended World Of Love. It was the first of what will hopefully be many UK-based independent games development conferences organised by the folks at Pixel-Lab, and specifically Mr David Hayward, who pretty much did everything in terms of Making It Happen. What he didn’t do was host the event – that was handled by the indie-supporting media cabal at Channel 4, so that was nice of them. I took notes and stuff, and I’ve written it up below. My notes were very fast and rough, and my memory is essentially a mad pudding of sleepless derangement, so please forgive any mistakes or omissions to the full plot of the day.

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Videos of Littleloud’s contribution to Channel 4’s British Indies initiative has surfaced online. The Curfew is a graphic adventure set in the near future with a satirical Civil Liberties theme, built on the technology which powered the previous BAFTA-winning Bow Street Runner. There’s a minor conflict of interest on this one, which I should probably make clear before progressing: I wrote it.

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News reaches us that Preloaded have done another of their education games. You’ll remember the Tim-Stone favoured 1066? Of course you do. And if you don’t, you’ll have clicked on that link. This time it’s Trafalgar Origins, an arcade game based around tall-ships and Nelson generally kicking ship-ass. Or Stern, as I believe it’s known. My quick play reveals a game which simplifies a little (you fire a broadside and your whole ship counts as if it’s reloading), but includes a lot of fine details (multiple shot types plus floating powder-keg mines, wind direction, etc) to complicate it just so. And RPG elements with buying crew, facebook integration and multiplayer. Also just enough edutainment to justify its remit as part of Channel 4’s remit. Trailer follows…Read the rest of this entry »

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Sometimes, the future creeps up when we’re not looking. Part of me wonders whether this will be part of it. Channel 4, after some impressive successes with webgames like the Bafta Award Winning Bow Street Runner and the Tim Stone admiration winning 1066 have decided to spend a load more on making games, reports Develop. Key quote…

The move is part of a £4.5m fund – half of which is finding its way to UK independent companies such as Tuna Technologies, Beatnik Games, Zombie Cow Studios, Six to Start, Preloaded and Littleloud to fund projects up to £800,000 in size.

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The bloke that cut-me-up on the A303 yesterday is a STENCH WEASEL, the librarian that never returns my smile is a RAVEN STARVER, and the person that regularly fly-tips at the end of my road is a STINKING TURD. Thank you midden-mouthed web wargame 1066, a week in your company has enriched my abuse lexicon no end.

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Work, or at least mysterious “pre-production” has begun on the sixth Introversion game, “Chronometer.” Google tells me that chronometer means “clock’, so perhaps some kind of clever time-travel game? Chris Delay isn’t giving much away, but I’m going to post that image of a big gold pocketwatch anyway.Read the rest of this entry »

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British Broadcasters Channel 4 send word of the first of their new online games, a rather well produced point-and-click detective adventure Bow Street Runner, which is set to arrive in a number of episodes in the coming months. The game is aimed to educate players about the work of the early police force – The Bow Street Runners – who were tasked with cleaning up the crime-ridden horrors of Georgian London. Surprisingly, it’s pretty good.Read the rest of this entry »